i have heard of people adding weight inside the engine nacelles. Not sure how much it would be possible to get in there considering there are full engines, but maybe there is room to get some weight in there without compromising things?

when it comes to adding weight to make sure this is not a tail sitter i found that you need to add the weight in the nose cone, and really pack it in. If it is just added where the instructions show then the plane will be a tail sitter. I had to totally pack the nose out on mine with fishing shot and even then the slightest of touches will make it sit down.

The first of the three builds i have managed to finish is the Tamiya F15C built out of the box but with the addition of the Revell F15 E Tigermeet decals which were very kindly sent to me by Neil Doman. The original decals i had fell apart on me and Neil came to the rescue and donated a set. Thanks mate i appreciate your kindness and help.

Although the decals are for the F15E i thought they looked good on the F15C as well, maybe even better?

I used xtracrylics Light Compass Ghost Grey and Dark Compass Ghost Grey through an Iwata Eclipse CS. There is not much difference between the two colours and next time i think i will use a custom mix of the paints to get a better definition between the two colours.

The second build is a "What if" inspired by the 2011 CONA. I wondered what the USAF might do if it was their centenary and came up with the following.

This is the old Italeri F16 kit built out of the box. The decals are from a Squadron Decals P51 Mustang sheet. The P51 in question was based in Korea in 1951 and the plane was called "Mouse Meat".

I used LifeColor Gloss Black as a base for the NMF which was done with various shades of Alclad Aluminium.

The sharks mouth had to be cut down to get it to fit correctly because of the LERX. The only other addition i made was an Aires exhaust as the one supplied with the kit looked nothing like the real thing and had a shocking lack of detail.

The third build is the Kinetic Mirage 2000, again an OOB build.

Again i used LifeColor paints for this build, about the only thing that worked as it should have. The fit of the wings to the fuselage was attrocious. At the front there was a 2mm gap which opened out to nearly 5mm at the rear and it was on both sides so i know it was not me being thick or something.

So after lots of filler and hours of sanding, i finally manged to get the gaps filled and looking semi repsectable.

I know Kinetic have a reputation of, shall we say, interesting fit charateristics, but this was really beyond the norm.

However i think it finally turned out ok but i could have done without the annoyance.

I too made the short trip over to Hove and soon found myself with an empty wallet and full arms, as well as those of my partner. A 1/32nd Tigermeet Tornado,1/32nd Trumpeter Harrier,1/48th Hasagawa F-16,1/48th Hasagawa F-18,1/35th Dragon Priest,1/35th Trumpeter ASLAV and a 1/35th Tamiya M577 have all now joined my stash....a most satisfying mornings shopping.

No, the cans are the kit parts, that was built in the days when I wasn't aware of AM stuff. Cheaper days. The rods all had to be put on one by one, which was massively fiddly. And, no, the paints were good old Revell Aluminum and Steel on with a brush with a fair bit of masking.

Yeah, I enjoyed the Typhoon (also brush painted) so much that I recently bought another of the same kit.

Cheers

Tim

Hi Tim,

those 'cans are way more detailed than the Tamiya ones, that is why i thought they were AM ones. The Tamiya F-15 'cans are extremely plain and really do need junking for somethign way more accurate and your painting has really brought them to life. Just goes to show what you can do without using Alclad...nice one I am after buying a single seat Typhoon kit as well to go with my twin seat. Although the Revell kit has it's issues, it is still worth buying when you consider the price.

Hi Neil,

thanks for the link mate, i was aware of that site and what a little gem it is, just like the one on the F-16 Falcon......makes our lives a lot easier!

i take it the 'cans on the Eagle are aftermarket? Amazing amount of detail on them and they look really good painted up the way you have them. Is that Alclad you have used for the metallic parts?

The Typhoon looks good as well, and i second your comments about the amount of time it takes to do the decals. I built the two seat version earlier this year and i think i used 198 decals on it, and that is without a weapons load out*lol* Man that was a long decaling session, made me realise why i have built AFV's all these years.

thank you for the information mate, i appreicate you taking the time to reply. Any chance of a few more photos of your Eagle? I have a liking for Tigermeet aircraft so would like to see some more photos of yours.

Hi Neil,

thank you for your kind offer, i have sent you a PM. I will post some photos when i have my Eagle finished, i was fully intending to do so anyway, i am just not in the mood to blog builds right now but like to show finished work.

can any one help with the decals from the 1/48th Revell F-15 Tigermeet kit? The ones i had have disintergrated when i tried to apply them so if anyone has a spare set they want to sell i would be most grateful. I do not mind paying for the decals on their own or for the whole kit.

Posted by Kentish Modeller on 05/08/2011 07:07:00:I also notice that Iwata have now dumped their 10 year warranty on all their products, these and some of their other brushes only come with a 5 year warranty, my Revolutions came with a 10 year warranty, the revolutions are now only 5 as well.

Have they lost confidence in their own product or is this a result of cost cutting.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Iwata have never offered a ten year warrenty on their airbrushes. The ten year warrenty is offered by their official UK importer, The Airbrush Company, and is still in place on all Iwata airbrushes bought from The Airbrush Company and official UK dealers. The five year warrenty is offered by the Airbrush Company on the Neo range of airbrushes because of the difference in price point between the Neo range and all other Iwata airbrushes.

As we are nearly half way through 2011, with quite a lot of new kits either released or in the pipe line. I was wondering what new kits would you want to see released? My top five would be the following:

So if you know anything about the Mayan Civilisation you know that next year is supposed to be the end of all things, so what do you think the big event will be?

I plumb for both twitter and facebook crashin' and burnin' and the world erupts in violence as a result of all the ppl who populate said websites no longer having anywhere to post about their lives and instead have to talk to "real" people in real situations

Hi Steve, thank you for your comments. I tried to capture the look of the paint on the Typhoon and i thought i had gone too far with the weathering/fading so it is good to get the opinion of someone who knows the Typhoon "intimately" so to speak. I have an IDF Sufa to do at some stage mainly because of the green/brown/sand camo. It is good to build planes that have something other than a grey finish to them.

no photos of the underneath i am afraid and that canopy is so delicate that i am loath to try and take some and you are right about that decal, it did take some persuading*lol* Not sure about blogging at the moment, i always find having to take in build photos to be a bit of an annoyance, but i will consider it for my next jet.

Thanks Jaymes, i think the Italeri is a better offering when you consider the price and the inclusion of the Cartograf decals.

Hi Mark, thanks mate i appreciate your comments. I am not sure what i am going to do next, it might be a jet or an AFV......i am thinking maybe a HB A7 would be the way to go, but then again i hear the Phantoms and F-16's a calling....but is their call loud enough to drown out the armour?*bg*

Hi Craig, seriously mate this was tinkering. I was just playing about to see what i could do without stressing over accuracy etc. I enjoyed the Typhoon, but the F-16 was even more fun. It is good to break the mould and do something other than armour. It has certainly given me a better appreciation for the excellent aircraft builds i see on here.